Volesus Champion, 1899

R. Gil-Santana, Helcio & Oliveira, Jader, 2019, First description of the male of Volesusnigripennis Champion, 1899, with new records from Ecuador and Panama, taxonomical notes, and an updated key to the genera of Sphaeridopinae (Hemiptera, Reduviidae), ZooKeys 841, pp. 97-123 : 102-103

Volesus Champion, 1899

Volesus Champion, 1899: 296 [description, comments on systematic relationship with other genera]; Wygodzinsky 1949: 65 [catalog]; Putshkov and Putshkov 1985: 99 [catalog]; Maldonado 1990: 490 [catalog]; Schuh and Slater 1995: 158 [citation]; Gil-Santana et al. 1999: 2 [citation]; Gil-Santana and Alencar 2001: 96, 100 [citation, key]; Forero 2004: 164 [diagnosis], 189 [key]; Forero 2006: 36 [citation]; Weirauch et al. 2014: 101 [citation]; Gil-Santana et al. 2015: 336 [citation], 337 [key].

Type species.

Volesus nigripennis Champion, 1899, by monotypy.

Diagnosis.

Volesus can be separated from other genera of Sphaeridopinae by the combination of characters presented in the key below, and additionally by the following characteristics: eyes medium-sized, not covering the head; interocular distance larger than the width of eye, dorsally, and approximately equivalent to it, ventrally; labium with only two visible segments.

Redescription.

Body integument shiny, generally diffusely rugose, with linear irregular impressions more intensively and coarsely in thorax, except on lateral portions of mesosternum and median portions of some sternites, in which it is mostly smooth. Head subrectangular in dorsal view, moderately elongate in lateral view; transverse sulcus straight, moderately impressed meeting eyes at inner posterior angle; a midlongitudinal well-marked sulcus running from transverse sulcus to approximately level of anterior margin of eyes; antenniferous stout, cylindrical, diverging forward, straight apically; anteocular region curved downwards, not, or barely, visible in dorsal view; eyes medium-sized, interocular distance in dorsal view larger than width of an eye; labium with only two visible segments; first visible labial segment short, enlarged; sec ond visible segment long, thin, straight. Thorax: pronotum trapezoidal; fore lobe much shorter and narrower than hind lobe of pronotum; transverse (interlobar) sulcus indistinct; median longitudinal sulcus ill defined, short, running on approximately basal fourth of hind lobe and separated from the median transverse depression of fore lobe by an irregular, curved carina. Prosternum somewhat depressed, with a pair of acute short, lateral processes, directed forward, median portion mostly occupied by stridulitrum, shortly prolonged posteriorly on midline, not surpassing the level of posterior margin of fore coxae and continuous with adjacent sclerite; meso- and metasternum flattened; fore coxae close, separate by a distance smaller than width of each coxa; middle and hind coxae separated from each other by a distance approximately equivalent to slightly more than twice width of each of them. Femora, tibia and tarsi slender, segments with similar width in all three pairs of legs; femora with a small ventral subapical protuberance; a small spongy fossa on apices of fore and mid tibiae. Tarsi three segmented. Abdomen enlarged at about middle portion; small scars of dorsal abdominal glands openings (dag) on medial anterior margins of tergites IV–VI; a vertical sclerite separating dorsal and ventral components of connexivum. Sternites with canaliculae (carinulate) on anterior margin of some segments.

Distribution.

Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador (new record), Panama (new record).